April 17, 2008

Leaving the Nest

Watching my fellow yoga teacher trainees teach on Saturday, it's hard to communicate how my heart opened up - with love for the yogis who came to support us, with love for our teachers who created this opportunity, with love and respect for those who were teaching and assisting. It's funny, because I am not so good at names and faces. But watching these people teach - now I know them. It was delightful seeing each person's different style, rooted in the same place, yet different.

Many years ago, a small bird built a nest in a houseplant that I had hanging on my front porch. I came home one night and the bird flew out - nearly scared me to death! When the bird was not at home, I examined the nest, and was touched to find the scratchy thorns and twigs from which the next was made were lined with dog hairs - no doubt the spring shedding from my springer spaniel Nipsy. When the bird laid eggs in the nest, I became very protective of my adopted family. The eggs hatched, and four chicks were born - I would hear them hungrily chirping. I felt blessed by this, as if the universe was showing me my own capacity for love. I was careful not to disturb the nest, although I did take a picture of the chicks in the nest. One beautiful warm day in the early summer, I was drinking my coffee and hanging out, and something told me to go outside. I did, and realized the birds had left the nest. But they were not gone - the family was perched on the telephone line outside myhouse. For the next half-hour, I sat on the front steps in the warm sunshine, sipping my coffee, and watching as they flew back and forth from the wire to the nest, testingtheir wings. They flocked together, tumbling through the air, delighted in their flying and in their togetherness. I felt as if they were saying good-bye, thanking me for keeping that space for them. Again, I felt the subtle touch of the divine - calling me outside on this day, to witness this event. And then they flew off - I never saw them again.

Watching my fellow yogis teach, was like watching those birds taking their first flight. I am honored to have been present for that, and my own faith and trust that things are just as they are supposed to be is rediscovered and strenghtened.